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Did you take your probiotics today? If you don’t currently use a supplement or get enough through your diet, you need to amp up your intake.
These beneficial bacteria influence much more than your “insert poop emoji here.” They also provide a veritable cornucopia of health perks. Here are eight impressive benefits of taking probiotics.
There’s nothing funny about straining when you need to go. It’s painful, and it causes hemorrhoids. Nor is diarrhea entertaining — especially when you’re the one running to the porcelain throne multiple times daily.
Probiotics can ease the pain of both conditions. They can even help loose, watery stools brought on by antibiotic use. According to a review of 12 electronic sources, taking a supplement reduced antibiotic-caused diarrhea by 42%.
As with many beneficial supplements, it’s best to increase intake through food. While pills prove simple to take, the manufacturing process may kill many healthy bacteria, leaving you with a less-than-ideal dose.
Fortunately, you can get ample intake through drinking kombucha and kefir. You can find both products more readily on store shelves these days. Liquid supplements may likewise reduce bacteria lost during production.
Do Pepto-Bismol ads leave you groaning? If you have heartburn, indigestion or an upset stomach after eating, including more probiotics in your diet may reduce your symptoms.
Gas and bloating can occur when you don’t have enough beneficial bacteria to keep the digestive process running smoothly. You can experiment to see if this deficiency is the underlying cause or if you should call your doctor.
Identify problematic food that always produces symptoms. Try taking a liquid supplement or replacing one sugary drink with kombucha or kefir daily for two weeks. Then, reintroduce the troublesome substance into your diet and see what happens.
If you can now consume the food with little-to-no difficulty, congratulations. If not, you may have an allergy or an autoimmune condition that requires medical intervention.
One of the reasons people gain weight is they overeat to combat distressing symptoms. How many times have you munched on a few crackers to settle your stomach? Those empty white-flour calories do add up, and it’s easy to keep snacking until you scarf down a full sleeve.
You eat when you get hungry, and probiotics may help you feel fuller longer. They do so by increasing the production of hunger-suppressing hormones that promote a feeling of satiety.
The year is 2020, and you have to battle the cold and flu season along with the continued specter of COVID-19. You need all the immunity support you can get.
One impressive benefit of probiotics is they may make you less susceptible to illness. According to one Finnish study of 570 children, those who took Lactobacillus GG-enriched milk reduced the severity and frequency of upper respiratory infections. Given the times we inhabit, you owe it to yourself to take any measures that might protect you from infectious disease.
Some strains of probiotics may improve the condition and function of your ticker. For example, your body produces bile to aid in digestion, converting it to cholesterol in your arteries. Some beneficial bacteria break down this substance in your gut before it can lead to clogs.
Another review of nine studies indicated that probiotics modestly decrease your blood pressure. Hypertension can damage arterial walls, leading to a potentially fatal infarction.
Do you suffer from depression or anxiety? While current events can undoubtedly contribute, so can neurochemical imbalances. What happens in your intestines affects your neurotransmitter levels.
Your gut emits substances during digestion that hitch a direct ride to your brain via your blood vessels. These chemicals then activate various brain cells and nerves that tell your body to release hormones. In turn, they tell your body to reduce or amp up the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
Including probiotics in your diet could potentially stave off dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The substances probiotic bacteria send to your brain also activate cells that tell your body to decrease inflammation. This condition is one of the early markers of degenerative cognitive disorders.
While several studies have suggested a link, researchers need to conduct future experiments to confirm that probiotics lower these disorders’ risks. However, the evidence to date implies that reducing inflammation may slow the progression of either disease.
Do you have problem skin? If you have eczema, rosacea or acne, one of the potential benefits of probiotics is a clearer complexion.
According to a study by the National Institutes of Health, probiotic supplementation improved eczema in children as young as 3 years old while bettering their quality of life. The beneficial effects lasted as long as eight months.
If you want to reap the rewards of probiotics, find a quality liquid supplement or add drinks like kefir to your diet today. You can also increase your consumption of foods like yogurt and tempeh. Everything from your mind to your heart to your belly will thank you.
